Friday, April 13, 2012

Mitt Romney, severely stiff?

David Seaton's News Links

The coming presidential election is very different from 2008... as then, one of the men is a known quantity and the other is an enigma. But yesterday's enigma is today's known quantity and although the other man has been around for years, the more he says and the more he does the less knowable he becomes.

Back then I was very skeptical of Obamamania, I couldn't really understand how someone who objectively had done little more than write a book about himself, could become a craze rivaling the hula hoop. I found it frightening and frivolous. People thought they were buying a Ferrari and for all they knew, they could have awakened to find they had bought a pair of roller skates. But, with the ample road testing of the US presidency, it turns out that if Barack Obama were an automobile, I can think of no better description of him than a four wheel drive, working vehicle: practical, sensible, reliable and not at all flashy, which also can be used for taking the kids to their soccer games. Eisenhower with a suntan.

And today, some of Obama's greatest fans from back then in 2008 are still bitterly disappointed on finding that having ordered a Ferrari, they finally took delivery on a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Admittedly, those that thought that they were getting an Ivy League version of Martin Luther King have ample reason to be disappointed... And what with Guantanamo and the targeted assassinations, the drones and so forth, Obama has turned out to have a sinister side... but all presidents of the United States of America up to and including Abraham Lincoln have had a sinister side... Because, national myths to the contrary, the US is a rather sinister place... in case you hadn't noticed.

Although in these four years, Barack Obama hasn't turned out to be the great... er... hope, he was cracked up to be, has he proven to be a rather good president during a very difficult period, certainly good enough to deserve those second term years, when a president is free to really seek his legacy. And certainly deserving of a second term when contemplating the alternatives.

Which brings us to Romney. Mr. Etch a Sketch.

I think it would be boring to try to plumb all of Romney's inconsistencies as they double back upon one another endlessly, tediously, suffice to say that one of the principal lines of the Romney-led, Republican attack against the administration is turning out to be an intent to repeal the "Obama Care" health plan, a plan which is a failed imitation of the same one Romney himself introduced in Massachusetts, when he was governor of that state and which is probably his only distinguished achievement in political life until now.

Back in 2008 the Obamites were quick to accuse anyone who dared criticize "The One" as racist, but now in 2012, I truly think that the only reason that anyone could prefer Mitt Romney to Barack Obama, would be the color of his skin. That is a path that McCain firmly refused to take, but by now, nothing Romney could do or say to get elected would surprise me. I predict that we are about to witness the filthiest presidential campaign in US history. DS

Except that Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex that Obama has fully embraced and expanded to the tune of putting General "surge-in-Afghanistan" (hasn't that worked out nicely?) in charge of the CIA and thus the drone wars that are being given a greater role in the "pro-active" ensuring of our safety.

They are both right-of-center politicians. It will be a Democrat who will end social security, privatize Medicare and the other crumbs of care that our taxes buy, a la Clinton ending welfare and Glass-Steagall. Those tax dollars will be needed to deploy the nuclear-powered drones that are on the Pentagon's menu. Nevermind the ipso-facto dirty bomb that will be handed to whoever downs one, or if one just fails on its own. Lame duck status I doubt will be transformational. Obama is who he is and from where I sit, that is someone serving the elite, not common people.

Stunts,I hate to (lie, I love) to say, "I told you so, but I'm sure you'll remember that I always had Obama pegged like that. I have never, never worshiped at his shrine, thus I am not disappointed. However, after four years, I think that he is now a known quantity and facing someone like Romney is by far the better choice. Certainly he never arrived at the White House, with the prestige and experience of Eisenhower or with a nation as united as America was back then. I compare him to Ike as pragmatic, competent and boring.

Absolutely Obama is the better of the two and I say this as one who also ignored the shrine and voted for Cynthia McKinney. The Republican party has found, after the Goldwater embarrassment, a tactic that never fails. By moving steadily to the right they bring the political arena and discourse with them ever further to the right, so that Dems, when in power, follow a right of center agenda as it has been promoted and accepted as sensible. Immanuel Wallerstein in his 1st commentary 327 thinks that Romney has erred in moving ever further to the right to neutralize Santorum, but this has always worked for the Republican agenda, even if "moderates" abandon him as a candidate. If Obama wins, large portions of the Ryan budget will be implemented by a Democratic administration because, oh my god!!!!!, social security will fail along with Medicare if we don't fix the profligate spending the government showers on "entitlements." Never mind that SS and Medicare spending are in sound financial condition and will be well into the 2nd half of the century. Current panicked nail-biting extends to the GSA. It is taken as gospel that spending must be reigned in. It will be cut by sweeping, as I said in the previous comment, the few crumbs left for ordinary folks off the table. It matters little to them which candidate gets to do it. And, just as an aside concerning entitlements, I was always under the impression that the buyer is entitled to what he's paid for. It must be the immigrants if it's not the lazy unemployed who are throwing the shining citadel off-kilter.